Ireland Road Surface, Width, and Passability for 20,900 km of Arterial Roads

HeiGIT produced this dataset covering 20,900 km of arterial roads in Ireland using AI analysis of PlanetScope satellite imagery from 2020 and 2024. It provides road surface predictions, width classifications, and a passability index to supplement existing OpenStreetMap data. The analysis focuses on motorway, trunk, primary, and secondary road classes.

Use Cases

• Monitoring infrastructure development by identifying transitions in the 'Road Surface Change' column
• Emergency logistics routing using the 'Humanitarian Passability Index (HPI)' to avoid high-blockage risk areas
• Vehicle fleet allocation based on 'Road Width Class' to ensure heavy trucks only use Class 3 segments

Strengths

• PlanetScope surface model achieved 89.2% accuracy during validation
• Provides multi-temporal surface data (2020 vs 2024) for change detection
• Includes a standardized Humanitarian Passability Index (HPI) for logistics planning

Limitations

• Restricted to arterial roads (motorway, trunk, primary, secondary), excluding local and residential streets
• AI-derived width and surface predictions may contain errors compared to ground-level surveys
• Geographic scope is limited to the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland

Provenance

Source

Heidelberg Institute for Geoinformation Technology (HeiGIT)

Collection Method

Deep learning analysis of PlanetScope satellite imagery integrated with OpenStreetMap road geometries

Time Range

2020-2024

Freshness

Last updated March 2026; contains satellite-derived data from 2020 and 2024.

Geography

Ireland